Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of JFK remains one of the most horrifying and hotly debated crimes in American history. Just as perplexing is the assassin himself. Oswald’s hazy background and motivations make him an intriguing yet frustratingly enigmatic figure. Because he briefly defected to the Soviet Union, some historians allege he was a Soviet agent. But in what the New York Times Book Review calls a “penetrating study of Oswald’s pivotal sojourn in the Soviet Union,” Peter Savodnik‘s The Interloper: Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union reveals a stranger, more chilling story. Oswald ventured to Russia at the age of 19, after a failed stint in the U.S. Marine Corps and a childhood spent shuffling from address to address with his unstable, needy mother. But Oswald quickly became just as disillusioned with his adopted country as he had been with the United States. After nearly three years, he returned to America feeling utterly defeated and began to look for an outlet for his frustration and rage. Drawing on groundbreaking research, including interviews with Oswald’s friends in Russia and the United States, The Interloper brilliantly evokes the shattered psyche not just of Oswald himself, but also of the era he so tragically defined. (Perseus/Basic Books)
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